3 North Allegheny students chosen for paid internships through Bank of America

Three North Allegheny Senior High School students served as paid interns at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh this summer through the Bank of America’s Student Leaders program.

The eight-week summer internship provides students with experience in serving their communities, enabling them to develop leadership and practical workforce skills. The Pittsburgh-based Student Leaders are participating a collaborative, mentor-focused project with the Children’s Museum assisting the education department.

Intern Amanda Hulver is a senior at NASH, who recently served as the co-chair for the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh’s Youth Board, a non-profit dedicated to improving global literacy, as well as serving as director of FIRST Ladies, an international community of women in robotics.

She said she enjoyed her Student Leader experience — “definitely the highlight of my summer” — enabling her to meet people from across the country and learn about ways to make a difference.

“I have learned a lot about how nonprofits function, including leadership structures, marketing, and finance and also the process of prototyping educational exhibits for children at the museum. I also learned a lot about how to develop better personal financial habits!” she wrote in emailed comments.

“The biggest thing I will take away from this experience is the motivation and inspiration to continue bettering my community through service and advocacy.”

Intern Angel Qu, a NASH junior, has served as a volunteer for her local library, which serves visitors across five municipalities. She also acts as secretary for the school’s Interact Club.

”I love the work that we do here at the museum. Every day is different, and although it can be boring or tiring at times, there is always something new to learn. One of my favorite aspects of the museum is that it’s a children’s museum — but that doesn’t mean it’s a museum only for children; it’s a museum for everyone to be children again,” she wrote in an email message.

“Even though my work is to help facilitate activities for summer camps or film creative processes or work on projects, the Children’s Museum always finds some way for me to heal my “inner child” and reintroduce to me some of my favorite childhood ways to express my creativity.”

The day-to-day work schedules vary, but the interns spend the majority of their time assisting at summer camps, she wrote.

“The rest of our time is split up between shadowing different departments, attending meetings/conferences, working on projects, and other miscellaneous tasks.”

Sometimes, though, she gets a few hours a week to work on art just for herself.

Intern Collin Wang, also an NASH junior, is a member of the varsity golf team and the extemporaneous speaking event leader for the Speech and Debate club. He is the director of finance for the school’s chapter of DECA and president of the AIM club, teaching students of multiple grade levels about artificial intelligence and machine learning.

He stated that he enjoyed the internship because of the people he’s met and the connections he’s made. “Whether it’s the museum educators, other Student Leaders at the D.C. summit, or even a set of twins in one summer camp, I’ve valued and learned from all of them,” he wrote in an emailed message. “The work has also helped me improve unexpected skills. One skill that I have developed is my artistic ability.

“Many of our summer camps revolve around art, so often times I will join in on the activities. So far I have drawn a picture of Spider-Man and Gwen Stacy on a piece of felt, made an Andy Warhol-esque sheet of heart stamps, and designed a clay key chain. Before this summer, I could barely draw a stick person, but now I have realized I’m more creative than I thought.”

He also participated in projects, such as crafting a presentation about social media effectiveness. “I was also able to attend and ask questions at a finance board meeting which was very informative.”

Started in 2004, the Student Leaders program recognizes 300 community-focused juniors and seniors from across the U.S. annually.

“The teens selected for this paid summer intern program are truly extraordinary, but may not have had access to opportunities like this until now,” said John Ciccolella, president, Bank of America Pittsburgh. “The Student Leaders program is just one example of how we connect people to meaningful employment resources that also builds a stronger pipeline of diverse talent for our local workforce.”

Student Leaders traveled to Washington D.C., July 17-24 for an all expenses paid, national leadership summit focused on the power of cross-sector collaboration and community advocacy.